Tag Archives: Algorithms

If you rotate an image of a molecular structure, a human can tell the rotated image is still the same molecule, but a machine-learning model might think it is a new data point. In computer science parlance, the molecule is “symmetric,” meaning the fundamental structure of that molecule remains the same if it undergoes certain transformations, like rotation. If a …

That classic result was a way to transform any algorithm with a given time budget into a new algorithm with a slightly smaller space budget. Williams saw that a simulation based on squishy pebbles would make the new algorithm’s space usage much smaller—roughly equal to the square root of the original algorithm’s time budget. That new space-efficient algorithm would also …